Dawn of a New Day
by JacobB'sImprintee
Summary: What if in the end Jacob was enough, more than enough? This is a story about change.
1. Monstrous Decision

**This is my second fanfic dealing with JacoBella.**

**Only this time it takes place during Eclipse: Chapter 23: Monster: Page 528**

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**Dawn of a New Day**

**Prologue**

They say true love is blind. And maybe some of that is true. But there's one thing that can crash right through that barrier. Okay, two things. Friendship and family. I just can't believe how long it took me to realize that. Though of course, I've never been in love with one person before, let alone two. So how should I know how love works? I guess I'm that naïve. Jacob once said that I lack self-knowledge. He is right. I do. It has taken me far too long to realize just how important he is to me. Now I know he _is _my whole world. Along with his family and friends, _my _family and friends.

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**Chapter 1: Monstrous Decision**

"_I love you, Bella," he murmured._

"_I love you, Jacob," I whispered brokenly._

"_Kiss me, Jacob. Kiss me, and then come back."_

_And Jacob misunderstood._

_Why wasn't I stopping this? Worse than that, why couldn't I find it in myself even the desire to want to stop? What did it mean that I didn't want him to stop? That my hands clung to his shoulders, and liked that they were wide and strong? That his hands pulled me too tight against his body, and yet it was not tight enough for me?_

_The questions were stupid, because I knew the answer: I'd been lying to myself. _

Jacob was right. He'd been right all along. He was more than just my friend. That's why it was so impossible to tell him goodbye- because I was in love with him. Too. I loved him, much more than I should, but was it enough? Was it enough to change anything? Or was it just enough to hurt us more?

Yes, I decided. Not yes, it was only enough to hurt us more. But yes, it was enough to change anything. He was enough. No, not was. He _is _enough. For now anyway. For now, he is my whole world. Or at least my own personal space heater/sun.

How long has it been since we were like this? 5 seconds, 20. A minute, an hour. A whole year. I decided it didn't matter. I wanted, needed, to be right here. I could stay like this forever and never let go. Well, not forever and I would have to let go eventually to breathe. We both would. But long enough to become glued to his lips permanently.

There's that word again. Enough. I really need to become unglued right now.

It was like we were one person. His pain was always my pain. Now his joy was my joy. Almost tangible. Like an earthbound sun, he once reminded me of._ Whenever someone was in his gravitational pull, Jacob warmed them. _Who knew that phrase could be more literal than it let on?

For one brief, never-ending second, an entirely different path expanded behind the lids of my tear-wet eyes. As if I was looking through the filter of Jacob's thoughts. I could see exactly what I would've given up, exactly what this new self-knowledge would save me from losing. I could see Charlie and Renee mixed into a strange collage of Billy and Sam and La Push. I could see years passing, and meaning something as they passed, changing me. I could see the enormous red-brown wolf that I love, always standing as my protector if I needed him. For the tiniest fragment of that second, I saw the bobbing heads of two small, black-haired children, running away into the familiar forest. When they disappeared, they took the vision with them.

And then, quite distinctly, I felt the yearning along the fissure line in my heart for that collage to happen in reality.

Jacob's lips were still before mine. I opened my eyes and saw he was staring at me with wonder and elation.

"I have to leave," he whispered.

"No."

He smiled, pleased by my response. "I won't be long," he promised. "But one thing first."

He bent to kiss me again, only this time I savored it. I tried to hold on to it as best as I could.

This kiss was different. His hands were soft on my face and his warm lips were gentle, unexpectedly hesitant. It was brief and very, very sweet.

His arms curled around me and he hugged me securely while he whispered in my ear.

"That should have been our first kiss. Better late than never."

Against his chest, where he couldn't see, the tears welled up and spilled over.

"I'll be right back." He turned around and started running full tilt for the clearing, already quivering as he prepared to shift to his other self.

_Shift_. Something I'll never be able to do.

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Twenty minutes later I was laying face down on the sleeping bag. Why couldn't an avalanche bury me right here and now? It certainly would save a lot of pain. Not just my pain, but Edward and his family's, too. How could I possibly break it to him that I was wrong and Jacob and him were right? With that being said, how could I tell Jacob goodbye if he wasn't enough? I couldn't even if I wanted to. I couldn't think of anything else in my life right now that isn't more important than Jacob Black. I know I said that before, when the Cullen's were still gone. However, this time he means _way _more than Edward. And all along I never even thought that was possible. Even Edward was more important to me than my own father. I realize now how selfish that is. Now that I choose life, I don't have to say goodbye to anybody that I love, not even the Cullen's. I have to talk to Jacob about that, but not right now. Now I need to go find Edward and talk to him, finally tell him the truth involving my feelings toward everybody.

As if on cue, without warning, Edward was by my side, stroking my hair. I always loved it when Jacob did that to me when we were embracing. _Stop right there, _I told myself. _You have to focus on Edward. He needs to know that you're not his anymore. _

"Love," he whispered. "Are you alright?"

"No. I want to die." That was far from a cry.

"You know I won't let that happen, right? Jacob won't either. Is that what's this is about? You and Jacob."

"Pretty much."

"Whatever it is, you can tell me."

"I just want you to hear this from me and not Seth's head."

"Anything, love."

"Please, stop calling me that!"

"Why not?"

"Because…because I asked Jacob to kiss me." I looked up at him, afraid of what I would see. Surprisingly, he didn't look that hurt, or was he acting again. Ugh, I hate it when he does that. Always masking his feelings. Like when he left me for dead. I continued on. "I realized that…that I-" I can't say it. I don't why. I just can't.

"That you love him," Edward finished for me. Only he said it like it was a well-known fact and not a question.

"More than you. I love him more than I love you. Please, don't be mad at me. He just wanted to feel loved and wanted by me. But the only way for him to feel loved by me was to kiss me. I was just playing along, but the longer we were like that, the more I let my guard down. Then all I could feel was Jacob Black. It felt like he was relinquishing a lifetime of his warmth to me. All I thought about was this universe with Charlie and Renee mixed in with the Pack and La Push, along with two little black haired children. Mine and Jacob's children. I saw everyone else and their kids. It seemed so real and I realized that I wanted that universe in the palm of my hands. It's crazy if you think about it." Then there was silence. Maybe Edward isn't taking this as well as I thought. It's time to face the music. I got off the floor and looked up to see that he was no longer in the tent with me. "Edward?" I shivered and turned to see the zipper open. And that's when I heard eight wolves howling in the distance.

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**Please let me know what you think. Thank you! Peace!**


	2. Battle

Well, for those 5 of you who seen this story and decided to give it shot, I hope you have not given up on it, or me. I have no excuse. I had this idea over three years ago. And now, it's back. And it's here to stay.

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**Chapter 2:**

**Battle**

The battle has begun. I was all too worried now to focus on anything. My mind was on Jacob. No matter how hard I tried to focus on Edward and Seth and Victoria not coming after us yet, I would always drift back to Jacob. Edward knows how important he is to me. Heck, so did everyone else, including Jacob, but I didn't. I was too blind, too naive, too proud, to surpass it. I didn't know how much of an importance he was to me, just that he is precious. Too precious to walk away from and never look back to.

All of this was going through my head when all of a sudden I heard a snap in front of me. I dared to look. Standing right in front of me was Victoria, her fiery red air blowing in the wind. This was it. I hardly noticed Riley come up behind her. I was absorbed in Victoria's scowl and crimson eyes. Riley said something then.

"You're dead," he whispered.

Edward lunged at him. Everyone was moving so fast it was hard to keep track of the actions. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Seth joining the fight. This was the time I got really worried.

Everyone was a blur. I barely saw Riley with his arms around Seth. Seth was whimpering.

"Hey, get off him," I yelled at Riley. He ignored me.

Then the Third Wife's sacrifice came to my mind. I saw a rock and used it to cut my arm. I felt the sticky red goo sliding down my arm. It was just enough to get everyone's attention.

Riley and Victoria began walking towards me, but I was no longer afraid.

Then Seth grabbed a hold of Riley by the neck.

"Vicki," Riley shouted. Two seconds later, Seth snapped his mouth shut, taking Riley's head off. Victoria began to run.

"You won't get another chance," I heard Edward yell from my right. "You want her blood. It calls to you."

Victoria lunged at me. Edward tackled her down. He ripped her head off with his bare hands. He took a lighter from his pocket and threw it on Victoria and Riley's bodies. The flames set high.

Edward slowly began to walk towards me.

He had hunger in his eyes. All these times I've been telling him I'm not afraid of him. Afterall, he isn't a monster. Not like the ones he and Seth just destroyed. But now, I understand what Edward has been telling me all this time we've been together. I know now why he truly left me that fateful day back in September. He did it to protect me, in the only way he knew how. He couldn't just say he loved me too much to endanger me. He couldn't say he'd come back when the danger was no longer a threat. He couldn't say those things because he didn't know. He couldn't have known. Neither of us could have foresaw the future; even Alice is on the fringe of the unknown.

Edward continues to slither to me. His eyes tell me everything. He won't hurt me, but if he does, he would be sorry. I hold my bloody arm up. He looks at it as if the blood would jump of the pale arm and into his dry mouth.

I try to get him out of this phase. "Edward," I whisper, my teeth chattering from the cold. "It's okay."

He snaps his head back to my face, his black eyes looking into my brown ones. I know he sees the fear. I can see fear in his eyes, too. He bows his head. I go up to him and give him a hug. Not really for him, but for me, for reasurrance. I hug him to let him understand that I could never truly look at him and see a cold beast. All I see, is someone who lost someone he cared deeply for a little over a year now. Someone who he will have to let go.

We hug for what seems like an hour, but is only seconds. After we break the embrace, we head down the mountain as fast as we can, with me on his back. I can see the fire and smoke and I smell an awful odor, which I know is the vampires rotting away and being burned. They smell like rotten eggs. Ick. Once we join the Cullen's-who have all survived- another wolf howl is heard. And from what I can register in Edward's now golden eyes is regret and guilt. He tells me without words that someone is hurt.

Please, no.

"What is it? Who's hurt?" But I already know the answer. Of course I do. I can feel my own heart breaking.

"Jacob," Edward tells me.

I mutter something incoherent before I fall and everything goes black.

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I know, I know. But this is just to see how things go. Though, if you type a little review and send it to me, that could very well motivate me to continue on with this story.

;-)


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